LaliBlue's Fairy Tale Necklaces

Some beautiful fairy tale necklaces can be found at Etsy's LaliBlue shop (or the original Spanish site)! There are the usual suspects (Little Red, Cinderella) alongside some other fairy tale characters you don't usually see in jewelry form, such as Donkeyskin and the Steadfast Tin Soldier.

Aubrey Beardsley's Cinderella

I recently came across some information about Aubrey Beardsley being possibly the most controversial illustrator of the Art Nouveau period, which surprised me because I was familiar with his Cinderella illustration, which seems pretty un-provocative to me:

So I did a little digging to see if he had done any more fairy tale art that might be either subversive, or what significance there might be in his taming down his own fairy tale illustrations. In general he embraced "perverse and grotesque erotica," you can read more/see some of his famous images over on Wikipedia.  However, it turns out that he wrote his own version of the Cinderella story to accompany his illustration, and although the image itself may seem innocent enough, the story is more along the lines of the "dark/twisted" fairy tale interpretations that are popular today.

From victorianweb.org:

Beardsley's own interpretation of the classic Cinderella story, appearing in The Yellow Book of July 1894, clearly personifies the powerful role that fashion has within a society. Beardsley changes the ending of the story to turn happy children's fairytale into a murderous mess of fashion and jealousy. Beardsley's version thus addresses the reader,

You must have heard of the Princess C. with her slim feet and shining slippers. She was beloved by the prince who married her but she died soon afterwards poisoned according to Dr. Gerschovius by her elder sister Arabella, with powdered glass. It was ground I suspect from those very slippers she danced in at the famous ball, for the slippers of Cinderella have never been found since. [Quoted Heyd 123]

Jimmy Choo slippers-$4,595

I can't find the actual full text for the story online, does anyone know where it can be found? On the one hand, many of us are getting a little tired of the whole "let's make fairy tales DARK and VIOLENT and for ADULTS!" movement, but Beardsley's ending was at least original and not jumping on a trend; and there's a sense of realism especially when contrasted with Perrault's Cinderella completely forgiving her stepsisters with no apparent consequences for either their behavior or the tensions in their relationship.

Beardsley was specifically criticizing the world of high fashion, and his works suggest that he "believed that Victorian fashion was a dangerous and powerful means to control and constrict women." (also from victorianweb.org) 

Turnip Princess

I found a copy of "The Turnip Princess" in a local library! This is the collection of Schonwerth tales translated by Maria Tatar. I have the Schonwerth collection edited and translated by M. Charlotte Wolf, and have posted on it before, but wondered how these collections compare.

I've just been browsing through "Turnip Princess", but there are some really interesting gems in there, including a version of Cinderella ("Ashfeathers"; it is a friendly dwarf who helps Cinderella get her dress and not a godmother or the spirit of her mother). There are, of course, many stories that aren't directly connected to our most popular fairy tales. Some of them are very dark and violent, as many unedited folktales are, and unlike the Grimms there are more references to sexuality, although none of them too explicit, as compared to some of our modern entertainment.

Arthur Rackham

The version of "Tom Thumb" is a good example of the physical and scatological humor found in the volume. Thumbnickel crawls through the keyhole into the treasure chest of the merchant who bought him, and tossed out the coins to his father. To avoid being whipped by the merchant he hid in a barrel of salt-but then the salt was fed to the cows, and Thumbnickel is passed through a cow (fully intact of course) and stuck in a pile of dung, about to be eaten by a mouse who is about to be eaten by a fox, until his father comes plowing nearby and manages to save him.

It seems gross but at the same time, when people lived in an age before indoor plumbing and many of our modern conveniences that allow us to be more discreet about our bodily functions, I guess it was better to embrace those aspects of life with humor than to stress out about them too much! And as we know, that type of humor is still enjoyed by children especially.

Both volumes have the tales separated into categories, which is really helpful. And it doesn't appear that there's much duplication of tales in each volume (Schonwerth had collected around 30,000 pages of text!!), so if you have one book and are considering getting the other, I consider it worth it to have both! You can compare versions of some tales side by side (such as "The Valiant Little Tailor," which I posted about here but mentioned Tatar talks of details that weren't in my version-they can be found in "Turnip Princess"). Wolf's collection has more tales (150 as opposed to Tatar's 72) but the stories found in Tatar's collection seem a little more easily digestible-shorter, faster paced, and more like the typical fairy tale formula we are used to. Although one major perk in the Wolf volume, for those of you who speak German, is the dual translation feature-you can read the original German on one page and the English on the other.

From the Archives: Bound Feet and Bride Shows

It's been a crazy week around here...haven't had time for researching new posts, but now that the blog has 5 years of archives, even I often forget some of the things I posted in the beginning. So every once in a while I may bring back an old post and edit it and share it for current readers. This post was published in September 2010:

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Janet and Anne Graham Johnstone

In Cinderella: A Casebook, Photeine P. Bourboulis argues for the likely origin of China for the fairy tale we now know as Cinderella in her essay "The Bride-Show Custom and the Fairy Story of Cinderella." She mentions two specific customs that appear in the Cinderella tale-first, the ancient Chinese custom of a bride show. When a rich prince wanted to marry, he would gather several beautiful young women and choose between them.

The other custom she mentions is the custom of foot binding. We can find other meaning in the foot test, such as an indicator of symbolic compatibility, but many readers are troubled by the question-why couldn't he identify her by her face? In some older versions of the tale, Cinderella had never even met the Prince. He just finds an unbelievably small shoe, one that no one else can fit into, and by that criteria alone, selects his bride. We aren't positive where Cinderella originated, but given the desirability of small feet in China, you can make a case for that being the origin. Yet of course the custom had some horrible ramifications for the women who endured it.

I'll let the pictures and the quotes from Chinese people do the rest of the talking. 
*(warning: Images may be disturbing)*

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"If a girl's feet are not bound, people say she is not like a woman, but like a man; they laugh at her, calling her names, and her parents are ashamed of her."

"Girls are like flowers, like the willow. It is very important that their feet should be short, so that they can walk beautifully, with mincing steps, swaying gracefully, thus showing they are persons of respectability. People praise them. If not bound short, they say the mother has not trained the daughter carefully. She goes from house to house with noisy steps, and is called names. Therefore careful persons bind short."

"Possessed of peerless beauty the ring of her admirers gradually increased, till at last she rose up to go. The excitement among the young men was intense; they criticized her face and discussed her feet..."

"One of a good family does not wish to marry a woman with long feet. She is commiserated because her feet are not perfect. If betrothed and the size of her feet not discovered till after marriage her husband and mother-in-law are displeased, her sisters-in-law laugh at her, and she herself is sad."

Gustav Dore

"Girls are like gold, like gems. They ought to stay in their own house. If their feet are not bound they go here and they go there with unfitting associates; they have no good name. They are like defective gems that are rejected."

From Madame Wu, a Chinese woman with bound feet: "I prefer eat to walk...In China not much use to walk, only around gardens at home. Chinese ladies not walk abroad like Americans. In streets they go in sedan chairs, always with chaperone."

Jennie Harbour

"But she could not get the toe into it, for the shoe was too small; then her mother handed her a knife, and said, 'Cut the toe off, for when you are Queen you will never have to go on foot.' So the girl cut her toe off, squeezed her foot into the shoe, concealed the pain, and went down to the Prince."

-from the brothers Grimm's Cinderella

"Any Chinaman will bear witness as to the seductive effect of a gaily dressed girl picking her way on tiny feet sometimes three inches in length, her swaying movements and delightful appearance of instability, converying a general sense of delicate grace quite beyond expression in words."-quoted by Bourboulis from H.A. Giles' The Civilization of China, 1911.

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4 

The Importance of Fashion in Perrault's Fairy Tales

I found this article, Wikispaces: Louis XIV's Use of Fashion to Control and Express Power, and it has a great section on the importance of fasion in Perrault's fairy tales:

"FAIRY TALES AS PROPAGANDA

“One of the earliest surviving French luxe mules, just the kind of slipper Cinderella wore to the ball, is a study in green and white. Made of white leather with a green leather welt and green embroider, it features the curvy Louis heel” (85). DeJean, Joan. The Essence of Style.

"Louis XIV similarly used propaganda to encourage the nobilities’ dependence on and obsession with fashion. At the time the belief was already in place that one’s outside appearance reflected not only one’s personality but who one was in terms of social status. The more expensive and fashionable, the more important one was.[15] As can be seen in fairy tales of the time, such as Cinderella and Puss in Boots, wearing a gorgeous gown or fashionable boots meant the wearer was important and heroic. [16] Two French Cinderella stories were published in 1697, one written by Charles Perrault and the other by Marie-Catherine de Barneville, Comtesse d’Aulnoy.[17] D’Aulnoy’s story had an especially strong emphasis on the importance of fashion; the dress and shoes were the main characters and Cinderella was only there to carry the clothing. In the story, when Cinderella comes to the ball, she never even meets the prince, but simply shows off her glamorous gown and “red velvet mules completely encrusted with pearls;” a pair of glamorous shoes she would never intended to lose.[18] On the other hand, in Perrault’s story, Cinderella slips out of her shoe in an attempt to lure the prince after her as she knows its beauty will attract him.[19] In D’Aulnoy’s story, she extends the obsession of fashion to men as well, as Prince Charming finds Cinderella’s lost slipper and becomes entranced by its petit size and exquisite craft.[20] He becomes devoted to and enamored by the shoe, not eating or leaving his room for weeks. The doctors his desperate parents send for declare him in love – Prince Charming himself states that it is the shoe with which he is in love.[21] D’Aulnoy’s story centerpieces clothing and the Parisian fashion industry, making it magical and desirable by its fairytale setting.

"Charles Perrault wrote the story of Puss in Boots around the same time. In the story, the youngest son of a miller is presented, as his inheritance, a cat. Puss is not particularly extraordinary until, upon his request, the son presents Puss with a pair of boots and a pouch.[22] Once Puss has these, he is able to perform heroic deeds and impress the king with many gifts. When the king is riding in the woods, the cat tricks him into believing the miller’s son is a Marquis, whereupon the king gives the miller’s son a set of expensive clothes because Puss has told him that the Marquis’s were stolen. Eventually the miller’s son marries the king’s daughter and the cat becomes a grand seigneur.[23] Just as Cinderella transforms into a high-born lady when she wears a gorgeous gown, Puss is transformed into a witty and courageous cat that is able to procure many great privileges for his master when given a pair of boots. The son’s relationship with the king is even firmly established by the king presenting him with the clothes of a courtier to wear. These clothes seem to transform the peasant to a courtier just as Cinderella’s did. Perrault’s story emphasizes “the virtues of dress, countenance, and youth to win the heart of a princess.” [24] Perrault also mentions, briefly, that the truly noble need not strain themselves. When Puss jumps up onto the ogre’s roof in fear, he finds it difficult because his boots are not suited for walking on tiles. Therefore the emphasis is especially strong on how, while wearing such fancy boots, he cannot do hard work because of course Puss’s boots would never be designed for labor because the nobility has no need to work. 

"Perrault wrote many other stories, including Sleeping Beauty, Little Tom Thumb, and Ricky of the Tuft. All of his stories include similar messages. He calls on women to be beautiful, fashionable, and to properly maintain her attire. Any woman of importance or good qualities in Perrault’s story posses beauty or, in the case of Cinderella, are able to swath themselves in beauty.[25] Men in his stories are ambitious and clever, always climbing the social ladder.[26] Puss especially embodies the perfect bourgeois, “who serves his master with complete devotion and diligence” and is ultimately rewarded.[27] Perrault encourages men to be loyal to the king and serve him well in order to gain his favor, just as Louis did through competition. Through his stories, Perrault hoped to portray, either by example or counter-example, the correct mannerisms and personalities of courtiers as well as what material items they required to achieve this.[28] D’Aulnoy’s Finette Cendron and Perrault’s Le Maistre Chat, ou Le Chat Botté loudly proclaim fashion as the most influential and important industry and almost all one needs to become rich and powerful."

(emphasis mine)

It's true that fashion is a huge theme in Perrault's fairy tales, as the topic was so important for his time and culture. However I find it interesting that the author (I can't find the author on the site...?) interpreted all of Perrault's writing on fashion literally. Fairy tale scholars generally see Perrault's writing as being highly satirical. I'll admit I have a difficult time wrapping my head around his writing being actually feminist, since his morals come across as so offensive to us today. But as you readers have pointed out, his morals are just so over the top and ridiculous, and at the time you couldn't outright criticize the King, you had to do it subtley. 

Still, even to me it seems that when Perrault talks about the importance of clothing it seems like he's poking fun of the royal circles and their slavish devotion to fashion. Like this passage when Sleeping Beauty has just awakened after her hundred years' nap: 

"The princess was already fully dressed, and in most magnificent style. As he helped her to rise, the prince refrained from telling her that her clothes, with the straight collar which she wore, were like those to which his grandmother had been accustomed. And in truth, they in no way detracted from her beauty.
"They passed into an apartment hung with mirrors, and were there served with supper by the stewards of the household, while the fiddles and oboes played some old music and played it remarkably well, considering they had not played at all for just upon a hundred years."

Either way, the conclusion is the same, that fashion was incredibly important in France at the time, and this is reflected in French fairy tales.

Illustrations-
Cinderella-Charles Folkard
Puss in Boots-Gustav Dore
Sleeping Beauty-Harry Clarke

When the Clock Strikes Midnight

I found this image while searching for pictures of Cinderella a while back and thought it would be fun to share today :) I couldn't find the source (it is basically impossible to find the source of a meme...but please share in the comments if you know!) but in the process of trying to locate the source I did find lots of other Cinderella memes, so we can have a humorous Halloween instead of a creepy one this year! Here are my favorites:

(And, they have actually sold a Cinderella playset that includes broom and dustpan)

From If Disney characters had Instagram: (the Belle one is my favorite so I threw it in although it doesn't fit with the Cinderella theme)

The Pumpkin Child: A Persian Folktale

I saw this story referenced on Multicolored Diary and it piqued my interest. What better time of year to be telling pumpkin-themed stories?

The Pumpkin Child is an old Persian folktale, and I really like it. It's sort of like a cross between Cinderella, Ugly Duckling, and a gender-bent Beauty and the Beast. There is humor, as the storyteller describes the pumpkin rolling and bumping around, but also we feel sympathy for the Pumpkin Girl, and a big theme of the story is how she copes with being different and made fun of (her mother tells her as she leaves for school, "Ignore anyone who makes fun of you!")

Like Cinderella, the Pumpkin Girl must be identified by an object that fits only her-a ring. Only in this tale, it's not a commentary on tiny size being ideal, but simply the fact that the Pumpkin Girl is unique. Some girls tried to starve themselves to get their fingers the right size, but others tried to fatten themselves up.

Murad, the rich merchant's son, has an advantage in that he saw a beautiful girl come out of the pumpkin and reenter, so he knows there's a secret this Pumpkin Girl has. Yet, he is not entirely selfish. His bride does not transform right after the wedding. In fact, he suffered some of the same mockery of the villagers once he declared his intentions to wed a pumpkin. After the wedding, he "took his pumpkin bride far away where he cared for her and never allowed anyone to laugh at her." I love this idea that, yes it's love that set her free, but not a one time love showed just by a proposal-he showed steadfast love over time and it was that love that set her free.

Image from here- to accompany the folktale "The Singing Pumpkin"

Read the whole tale here! This website also includes a family activity to go with the stories, this one is making pumpkin chips!

Cinderella's Pumpkin Roundup, Part VI

This is always a favorite post of mine to create! I love the professionally done Cinderella coaches but also love the idea that you can create your own at home, even those of us that aren't artists ;)

Enjoy! 

Note: I try linking images back to their original sources whenever possible. Sometimes the website I find it from doesn't include a source and a reverse google image search doesn't help either. If you know of an image's original source, please let me know in the comments!

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A Little Cuppa Tea

If you like these, be sure to check out Parts I-V:

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

Cinderella Picture Books with a Twist

 Came across some picture book versions of Cinderella that have delightfully modern twists to them!

Prince Cinders by Babette Cole features a gender bent story in which a male hero is bullied by two brothers. For all the action heroines today, I think what we really need to make feminism more well rounded is to now show males that it's okay for them to step out of the traditional male stereotype.

Ella's Big Chance by Shirley Hughes is set in the jazz age. This time, instead of a teeny tiny heroine with big ugly stepsisters, Ella has a more typical body while her sisters are really skinny. Not only that, but she rejects the duke's proposal because she is in love with another.

Then there's, "Seriously, Cinderella is SO Annoying", part of the Other Side of the Story series that retells classic fairy tales from a different character's perspective. This idea is fairly popular now, especially with Disney's "Maleficent" being such a huge hit, but it's still probably a fresh idea for most parents and kids when it comes to Cinderella.

There are lots of "twisted" fairy tales for adults but I love these books that introduce readers at a young age to versions of fairy tales that don't have to follow the traditional formula. Any other
Cinderella children's books out there that provide a fresh look at the story?